The Korean peninsula went through a series of crisis in 2017, but a sudden breakthrough came just before the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February. Departing from its confrontational and even hostile posture, North Korea has decided to participate in the event, thawing icy inter-Korean relations for the time being. As most South Koreans as well as the world wished, a peaceful Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have come true. But would the peaceful Pyeongchang Olympics lead to a lasting Olympic peace, involving tension reduction on the Korean peninsula, inter-Korean confidence-building measures, and eventually the denuclearization of North Korea? The talk will explore these issues by focusing on the post-Pyongchang era as well as policy efforts of the Moon Jae-in government to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

MOON Chung-in is special advisor to the President of South Korea, for foreign affairs and national security. He is also a distinguished university professor at Yonsei University, a Krause Distinguished Fellow at School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, and editor-in-chief of Global Asia, a quarterly journal in English. He is a former chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative – a cabinet-level post in the Korean government – and has served as Ambassador for International Security Affairs at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. MOON Chung-in was a special delegate to the first (2000) and second (2007) Korean summits both of which were held in Pyongyang.